I am BEAT! But I better write before I fall asleep!

Tonite, Tom was going to ride with me, but he got really busy with work so I decided to get Reese out and get a little speed going again. I wanted to test his pulse correctly this time too. So I hauled to Sue's and rode to the brown cabin again...this time trotting most of the time. It was VERY windy and about 70 deg. Fabulous nite for a good ride. Reese was a bit sluggish to start but got lighter as we went. His increased energy somehow seems to correlate to our favorite break or eating spots....hummm. lol. We cantered a few times and it felt good. I don't know if he will ever be the type of horse that will just lope along nicely though....he has such a powerful, jousting canter. ;-)

On the way home, Reese was in his wicked awesome trot and at one point, Ruby decides it would be great fun to play and would come up from behind and beline it past us (Reese would toss his head as she did) and then zip off into the woods, circle around and come back and do it again! I wanted to tell them both to knock off the playing, we have some serious riding to do here! LOL The 3rd time I was about to throw something at her! lol. But then decided to use it as an opportunity to keep my horse focused on ME. It was very good.

We stopped about 10 min. from the trailer, I dismounted and loosened Reese's girth and checked his pulse. It was 73, but jumped right to 61 within seconds. I hand walked a little ways...he was pretty sweaty and then decided to remount at a walk for the last 5 min of the ride. I tied him up at the trailer and checked his pulse again (this would have been 10 min from the first pulse check) and it was 48, which is very acceptable for our first year. SO, I feel more than ready! The really great thing was that although Reese was sweaty, he was alert, happy and not dragging at all. He would have been much less sweaty if he would just adopt a nice even paced trot....I think he will learn that in time. ;-)

As hard as it was, Reese got his full 2 days off after his chiropractic adjustment. I made really good use of my time not riding, by cleaning and preparing for our upcoming CTR ride. Tom and I washed all the windows and screens on Saturday and I did some major sorting of tack, cleaning closets and then cleaned the barn & stalls. I was on fire! lol. By Sunday I was ready for a relaxing trail ride.....

Tom and I loaded the boys up and headed to the conservation road. It was the perfect evening, no flies and the dogs bounced along as usual.....well, to start anyway. About 1/2 way up the trail, they both went off on a scent....they do this all the time, but come back shortly afterwards. We just went on our merry way.....but after a mile or two, we started to get concerned. No Pete and no Ruby. We turned around at the brown cabin and I heard what I thought was Ruby barking. She has been known to do this when she loses me. Sure enough, right where we last saw them, there stood Ruby in the middle of the road....almost stunned. But no Pete. Ruby followed closely behind me and I noticed she had one porquipine quill in her lower lip. Ah....the puzzle is starting to come together now. Tom figured that Pete probably got banged up pretty good by the porquipine and went back to the truck. I was doubtful...but it did make sense. Sure enough, we got back to the truck and Pete crawled out (I should say limped out) from under the trailer.....holding up his hind leg. At first I thought he was injured, but a closer look and his entire hip was full of quills....and so was his muzzle. I have never seen so many quills on our dogs before! We quickly loaded the horses in the trailer, threw them some hay and Tom started working on Pete. Tom pulled 40 out of his hip and another 15 or so out of his muzzle. Poor boy!! I don't know how Ruby managed to only get 1 except that she is not as aggressive as Pete and probably kept her distance. Pete is still limping today....we think he probably has a few buried deep in his muscle that will have to work their way out. Needless to say, he is getting lots of TLC today.

SO, now onto today's ride!!! Late last night after our ride, I checked my email and got a message from Kelly that she was riding in the a.m. at 9:00 and would I like to join her. FANTASTIC, yes! We arranged to meet at the ski trails in Kinross because she knew the trails really well and it was nicely shaded on this rather warm sunny day. It was an amazing and fun ride! Thanks Kelly!! Kelly has this darling appy (shhh...she likes to keep this part quiet & arab. lol) cross mare named Roxy. Reese and Roxy hit it off right away and up the trail we went. Kelly does alot of solo riding and I found her online through a local chat group where she posted that she was looking for someone to ride with from time to time....we emailed and the rest is history. I was home by noon....just as the heat of the day came upon us. ;-) Tom just headed to the lake house, so guess I will join him for the rest of the day.

What a fantastic holiday weekend....we worked hard and had time to play too! Hope yours was just as memorable!

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Caroling on Horses
Comanche Tack
Tribute to my Dad
"EVERYTHING"
Tribute to Sam